I'm really not sure about that one (The BEyond). I have a vague inkling that someone brought it into our video shop one night (one of the under the counter not quite rental proper tapes). There were a lot of very odd horrors in there that all seem to have merged into one for me. I just preferred to put in Aliens

126. Chi to hone (Blood and Bones) (2004, Sai) - 4/5 Yoichi Sai's decade-spanning tale of violent, detestable Korean immigrant Kim Shunpei is certainly not an easy watch, something exacerbated by a slightly over-long running time of 145 minutes. Takeshi Kitano takes the lead role in his second best performance after Hana-bi, and where that film showed a rarely-exhibited warmth and love in the Kitano persona, Chi to hone takes that persona and forcibly removes the sympathy from it. Kim is a brute, a man of frighteningly real cruelty, and Kitano is brilliant in the role, a twitching, aggressive beast who doesn't care about anyone else and is only motivated by greed and a disturbingly lofty opinion of himself. He is a vortex of hideous cruelty and violence, and Kitano and Sai confront the audience with this vortex as it sucks character after character in, spitting them out after abusing them, exploiting them and beating them down. Nobody who comes in contact with Kim comes out better off, and as the film progresses, it is almost as if Sai is daring us to do something, anything, to stop Kim's reign of terror in his small neighbourhood. What is delivered is a frighteningly effective realisation of the phrase, "All that is needed for evil to succeed is for good people to do nothing." Characters talk and talk and talk, but when it comes to actually doing something about Kim, nobody wants to. He becomes a boogey-man, an untouchable figure within his community, and only the people who are wired just like him are willing to do anything about it - and even then, it's not fully effective. Chi to hone's technical aspects aren't necessarily highly-accomplished, with the majority of the cinematography being unremarkable and the score being very much a cookie-cutter one, but Kitano's performance and the starkness, the bleakness of the material elevate this film above its failings.

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ORIGINAL: Rinc She's supposed to be 13! I'd want her to be very attractive though

Sleeping Beauty (Clyde Geronomi, 1959) The Disney magic brings the slight tale to life, and whilst the cutesy animals are a bit dated, the music is lovely and there are few villains in the Disney back-catalogue who can hold a candle to the wonderfully scary Maleficent. (8/10)

Interiors (Woody Allen, 1978) Allen's first clean break from comedy is a worthy, austere homage to his hero Ingmar Bergman and suffers from the same problem as many of Bergman's films: for all the nice photography and fine acting, it's dull as dishwater (5/10)

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I've only gone and set up a blog! This week I've been mostly reviewing The Lego Movie and Wadjda. Click: The Fast Picture Show

222. The Limits of Control (2009, Jarmusch) - 4/5 An impulse visit to my local arthouse cinema today saw me sitting in the audience for this, Jarmusch's latest. Jarmusch takes on the spy/hitman sub-genre of action films and, in what could be considered a rather counter-productive move, removes all the action. However, what we're left with is a surprisingly comfortable, interesting portrayal of the repetition, routine and ridiculousness at the heart of the spy film. Isaach De Bankole's 'Lone Man' is a man of the old school of espionage/assassination/whatever - no guns, no mobiles, no sex while working, no emotion. His current mission - unclear; what we're shown of it is a series of meetings in coffee shops with various people, exchanging matchboxes, eating papers with codes on them, and receiving cryptic instructions to meet more people. The Limits of Control plays on Jarmusch's love of a vignette style of storytelling, with each meeting being able to be seen as a separate story connected with the others through an overarching theme and loose plot, and it works particularly well, with a fantastic ensemble cast including John Hurt, Hiam Abbass, Tilda Swinton, Gael Garcia Bernal, Luis Tosar and Youki Kudoh imparting views on science, film, painting, music and the source of the word "bohemian", all of which are connected by a theme of reality and the manipulation of it. Jarmusch analyses this theme exceptionally well, both interrogating it through his vignette style and using it to slyly poke fun at spy film tropes (at the end, when Bill Murray's American asks him how the hell he got into his compound, guarded by many men with rifles and fenced off with barbed wire and solid concrete walls, the Lone Man replies drolly, "I used my imagination"). This thematic discourse is given humanity by De Bankole, whose Bresson-esque performance may lack the emotion of, say, Johnny Depp in Dead Man, but his enigmatic presence is more interesting than Depp's in that film, and when he does show emotion, it reveals a man whose seeming ability to mould the world around him doesn't faze him one bit, and indeed, he is more human than most spies in the accepted spy canon. Christopher Doyle's cinematography is exquisite, as usual, and the music, while repetitive, isn't as grating as Neil Young's 'score' in Dead Man, and actual imbues the film with an intensity that the lackadaisical pace of the film belies. It's not a perfect film by any stretch of the imagination - any scene involving Paz de la Huerta is annoying to the point of anger, and considering she's following the Lone Man, that is a lot of scenes; and the film's slow pace did occasionally threaten to send me to sleep - but it's a far more interesting and successful study of theme and genre than Dead Man, and worthy of more praise than it has received.

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ORIGINAL: Rinc She's supposed to be 13! I'd want her to be very attractive though

I've watched a ton of shorts that I can't include here yet because of the list, so that'll be November.

Amsterdamned (Maas, 1988)

A kind of trashy Dutch giallo about a scuba diver using the canals of Amsterdam while on a killing spree. The bad acting really isn't helped by the fact the DVD has a dodgy sounding dub, rather than the more welcomed subtitles (unless there is a setting my player wasn't recognising). But it does have some style and some rather gruesome scenes (starting with the kids on not the best canal boat ride), and the begoggled diver makes for a quite an absurd and creepy protagonist. There is also a scene in one of my favourite places on the planet which kicks it up a rank - in front of the Night Watch and the rooms around in the Rijksmuseum

Oyster Farmer (Reeves, 2004)

Jim Norton has really had the oddest career, all over the place. He is the most watchable thing in this - the older generation farmer of oysters whose son's marriage is on the brink of collapse. I think Reeves is kind of trying to get a feel round a community in the way, eg, Sayles does but sometimes it does feel like the editor got the rushes without the script and some of the scenes missing. And I hadn't realised that chap from Moonlight was Australian, either.

Charlie Chan at the Opera (HUmberstone, 1936)

Possibly the best Chan (or 2nd if you're Rick). With a strong affinity to Phantom of the Opera it benefits from a couple of fabulous guest stars - Boris Karloff on top form as an escaped lunatic opera singer (and a sly reference to Frankenstein turns up in the script) and the wonderful William Demarest as the bungling police sergeant. It isn't just the guest stars, though - it is an immensely atmospheric film, and very well made - the opening scenes with Karloff at the piano and his escape and pretty much perfect - creepy with great music. And this is balanced with Demarest handling most of the comedy side of things, running round the theatre trying to solve the case. If you ever want to try a Chan, I'd recommend starting with this.

Get Smart (Segal, 2008) Again.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking? " " I don't know. Were you thinking, "Holy shit, holy shit, a swordfish almost went through my head"? If so, then yes. "

God, I love Arkin. This actually reminds me of a very funny bit from, I think, Mock the Week where, I think, Russell Howard is talking about one of the Tory billboards back home in Bristol - the ones that said 'Are you thinking what we're thinking' and some enterprising wag had writtin underneath

The Mist is a rewatch - I really like it. I was surprised as I've not really taken to everything Darabont has done with King, but this just worked really well. And Toby Jones is a god.

9 was just as frakkin' awful as I expected after watching the short earlier in the year. If I get time tomorrow I'll do a proper review, I was just trying to remember everything I've forgotten for this month!

The Mist is a rewatch - I really like it. I was surprised as I've not really taken to everything Darabont has done with King, but this just worked really well. And Toby Jones is a god.

Great to see that, the ending does divide poeple. It's incredibly athmospheric. The only annoyance is that poeple now seem to compare me to the giant monster at the end becuase I'm apperantly tall to them. That and the religous zealotry is a bit heavy handed. Why did I show it to my friend? (I convinced him by telling him it's similar to the Silent Hill games)

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ORIGINAL: Dpp1978 There are certainly times where calling a person a cunt is not only reasonable, it is a gross understatement.

I can see the argument for the religious side being heavy-handed - but then I look around and see how easy it is for people to turn fruit-loops and superstitious. And it is pretty frightening - and Harden superb.

Two birds with a single stone with tonights viewings. 1) Halloween-appropriate; and 2) afforded me the opportunity to watch a couple of the films proffered in the Top 5 Personalised Recommendations thread.

080) Drag Me to Hell(Sam Raimi, USA, 2009) - 6.0 Not as good as I'd hoped, but some decent daft Raimi-horror.

089) Eden Lake(James Watkins, UK, 2008) - 6.0 Tense, yes, but mainly in annoying way. The "scary working class locals" aspect was way overdone and the small amount of concern some of them showed for Jenny just before it all went to shit, was not sufficient to balance out the heavy-handed message that angry/violent parents = children who engage in disrespecting people, rabbit-/badger-bothering, car theft, drug abuse, the relentless and psychopathic pursuit of victims (48 hours straight?), kidnap, torture and immolation. Also the fact that Jenny and Steve made numerous ridiculous choices (not least, leaving behind handy weapons on 3 seperate occasions). I'm tempted to rate it lower, actually, as I don't think it deserves the same score as Drag Me to Hell....

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking? " " I don't know. Were you thinking, "Holy shit, holy shit, a swordfish almost went through my head"? If so, then yes. "

God, I love Arkin. This actually reminds me of a very funny bit from, I think, Mock the Week where, I think, Russell Howard is talking about one of the Tory billboards back home in Bristol - the ones that said 'Are you thinking what we're thinking' and some enterprising wag had writtin underneath

"is it Wotsits?".

Get Smart is a surprisingly good film, though. The actors are all on good form, and the writing is surprisingly funny. Arkin is easily the best thing about it, however.

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ORIGINAL: elab49

The Mist is a rewatch - I really like it.

Stop lying to us all. We know you hate everything.

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ORIGINAL: Rinc She's supposed to be 13! I'd want her to be very attractive though

33. Double Indemnity (1994, Wilder) 9/10 One of the first film-noir's I ever saw and still one of the best. Every element of the film is beautifully considered, be it the lighting (suitably dark, especially in the Dietrichson house), the ominous and foreboding score or the three excellent lead performances. Fred MacMurray is an actor I often find a touch dull when playing the good guy, but here allows his Walter Neff a certain cocky charm, Barbara Stanwyk is almost the quintessential femme fatale, simultaneously alluring yet cold and steely eyed. Edward G Robinson, meanwhile, was never more likable, playing his role with realistic kindness, intelligence and loyalty up to the final scene. A classic.

40. Natural Born Killers (1994, Stone) 9/10 My favourite film when I was 14, though I suspect that was due to a teenage desire to appear "edgy". Regardless, it still holds up very well today. A well-worked satire on the media's obsession with violence and the glamorization of killers, Stone's visual style really helps the film and it's themes along, juxtaposing the all-American 50's sitcom with parental abuse in one scene, then, through a haze of overbearing green lighting, portraying the overwhelming unease and confusion of the two stars following a series of snakebites. Woody Harrelson dispatches any memory of his Cheers character with a maniacal performance as serial killer Mickey, while Juliette Lewis is equally good and equally unhinged as his wife Mallory.

177. Final Destination 2 (2003, Ellis) 6/10 It was on late last Sunday, I didn't feel like thinking much, it passed 90 minutes quite comfortably and featured an excellent scene where an annoying child was crush by a sheet of glass. In other words, it did it's job.

229. Shark Attack 3: Megalodon (2002, Worth) 3/10 Between this, Manos: The Hands Of Fate and Troll 2, I've watched some glorious tat this year. Wonder if I've got time to track down Santa With Muscles before the year is out.

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The Spanish Inquisition of the 'Get Carlton Banks a TV Spin-off' Association

"Carlotta was the kind of town where they spell trouble T-R-U-B-I-L, and if you try to correct them, they kill you"

ORIGINAL: DCMaximo 229. Shark Attack 3: Megalodon (2002, Worth) 3/10 Between this, Manos: The Hands Of Fate and Troll 2, I've watched some glorious tat this year. Wonder if I've got time to track down Santa With Muscles before the year is out.

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ORIGINAL: Rinc She's supposed to be 13! I'd want her to be very attractive though